The world has changed dramatically since the global pandemic hit us. We’ve gone from commuting to work every day to hybrid (home office and on-site), artificial intelligence being deployed and used in apps and business, Web 3.0, and Meta, but the best is yet to come, thanks to physics, we are now encountering a new era for transportation, wind power, and flying cars. Through magnetic levitation, this -and more- is possible.
By 2027, Japan is planning to deploy a transportation line using magnetic levitation.
SCMAGLEV is a very special transport technology that has been developed in Japan. When materials are cooled below a certain temperature, their electrical resistance approaches zero: it is the phenomenon of superconductivity.
Small but very powerful superconducting magnets make trains may levitate 10 centimeters above the track and reach top speeds of 500 km/h.
Flying cars is another application of magnetic levitation planned to be launched by SkyTran, at a speed of 150 mph. This will reduce oil dependence and carbon dioxide emissions, as well as traffic.
NASA is considering implementing maglev for aerospacial transportation, which may attract commerce and investment.
In the future, elevators might work using maglev as well. The German company ThyssenKrupp promises that in the skyscrapers of the future there will be elevators that will arrive every 30 seconds. The firm presented a technology that allows a single well to house more than one cabin, which will also move horizontally. ThyssenKrupp assures that his invention will revolutionize modern architecture, because the central blocks of the elevator shafts, an essential element in today’s buildings, will no longer limit the design.
Residents of buildings will have to wait less at the elevator doors, while builders will gain space that can be used for apartments, offices, and other facilities. The key to the cabin displacement is a linear motor that ThyssenKrupp has produced modeled on the German Transrapid magnetic levitation train, built by the firm itself in collaboration with Siemens. Each of the cabs would need a single motor, both for horizontal and vertical movement.
We are definitely just starting up this new revolution, and the best is yet to be seen. As life goes faster, technology goes hand in hand with our system’s evolution.